With opposing political parties controlling the House and Senate, chances for repealing the national health care law appear slim, so some opponents have suggested that Republicans in the House refuse to fund portions of the law.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 29% of Likely U.S. Voters think Congress should be required to fully fund a law if it is unable to repeal the legislation. A plurality (46%) says Congress should not be required to fully fund the measure, but another 25% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters believe that if the current Congress does not think the nation can afford a law passed by a previous Congress and signed by the president, it should repeal that law. Twenty-two percent (22%) think a better option is for Congress to refuse to approve funds to implement the law. Thirty-one percent (31%) are not sure.

It’s important to note that neither question specified what the law was about, but a high percentage of respondents indicated that they are following news reports about the current posturing between Republicans controlling the House and Democrats controlling the Senate.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on January 5-6, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

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